The Perfect Cover Letter

Your Cover Letter Should Be Flawless

A cover letter is the first line of communication between you and a potential employer. It serves as your introduction to them and also as a sound test of your writing abilities. A resume might carry more weight for final hiring, but a good cover letter will always get your resume read.

Job applicants are already familiar with the one-page format of a basic cover letter: a brief header, a warm introduction, a stoic description of qualifications, and a friendly conclusion. We all know what it looks like, but in today's ultra-competitive job market, cover letters have to be edgier and smarter to stand out from the others.

Here's our guide to building the perfect cover letter.

Brainstorm the important questions

To a potential employer, your cover letter is the answer to several key questions:

Why should we hire you?

Can you do this job?

Will you get along with my employees?

Will you bring enthusiasm to your position and make positive contributions?

As an applicant, building the perfect cover letter includes answering these questions as well as achieving the following:

Prove to an employer that your skills and experience fulfill each element of the job posting.

Showcase additional talents and intangible assets that don't merit their own spot on your resume, but are worthy of inclusion.

It sounds simple enough, but taking a simple approach to building the perfect cover letter is where problems often arise. Some applicants will read a job posting, look at their last cover letter, and regurgitate the same job qualifications and work experience, only to hear nothing back. In putting their own needs for work ahead of the employer's needs for a new hire, they immediately put themselves out of the running.

To gain the almighty interview, you need to build a perfect cover letter — one that discusses your potential employer's needs and also offers concrete ideas as to where you fit in.

With that in mind, consider the following questions when building the perfect cover letter:

What are the primary needs of the company?

Which specific qualifications do I have that fit in with these needs?

What professional and personal qualities do I have to match the type of people who might work here?

How do this job and the company as a whole fit in with my career goals?

If you've taken the time to consider these crucial questions, you're already miles ahead of those who are working feverishly on what will be a perfectly ordinary cover letter.

Start with the familiar

The next step is to create an outline that pairs specific employer needs with your own notable skills. Rank your pairs from best to worst, and assign a minimum of three notable professional achievements that are relevant to this application. You will need all of these later on.